


The Illusion of Closeness

by Codydarkstalker



Category: Ocean's (Movies), Ocean's 8
Genre: Drabble, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Multi, Post Movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 13:33:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15244503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Codydarkstalker/pseuds/Codydarkstalker
Summary: Daphne is a bit needy, thank goodness the other ladies think she's cute.





	The Illusion of Closeness

Daphne is pretty, but she worries other girls are prettier. She’s smart, but not smart enough to be hard to read. Not for Debbie and Lou at least. They see her and they know, it’s all plain as day. Pretty Daphne Kluger is worried that some pretty young things is going to take away everything she has. All her love, all her money, all her fame. She lives with the knowledge that ten extra pounds or a bad hair day could be all that stands between her and nothingness. It’s happened before. Stars, famous beyond measure, fading away to nothing, remembered by no one until they die alone and the academy does a retrospective during the next awards season. They consider it lucky if no one else famous died that week, so you stay trending for a few extra days.

Debbie knows this, sees it in Daphne as plain as day. So does Lou. They know what it’s like to be an invisible sort of woman. A pair of sweatpants and a ponytail and they can go almost unseen even on a crowded street. They also know how useful that can be, going unnoticed, but they don’t tell that to Daphne. Instead they just play with her fears, twisting them for their own uses. Pretty Daphne, with no friends, she sees Rose and some silly little starlet in the papers and sees red. And suddenly they have an easy in.

Even after the job is over, Daphne hangs around. She’s filming in Canada but it’s an easy trip back to NYC. She hangs around Lou’s warehouse in expensive shoes that click clack deafeningly on the cement floors. Her hair is always done, her makeup always perfect, as if she can’t stand for anyone to see her without all that armor. 

The other girls begin to notice. They come and go, between jobs and lovers and apartments. Constance stays at the warehouse more than her plush loft apartment. Most weekends she’s stretched out on a battered couch, playing a game on her phone and chattering at Nine Ball as she works. Nine Ball insists that her bar, though amazing, is no good for hacking work. Too loud, too busy. She made a mistake, her business is too good for her to use it as a base for her side business. She hadn’t been prepared for that Gothamist article putting her on a list of hot dive bars in NYC and suddenly the place is overrun with hipsters and tourists eager for an authentic experience. She takes their money despite the annoyance and moves some of her hardware back into the warehouse. 

Amita is there the least, stopping by between trips abroad and flings with men all over the world. She brings presents and leaves them around the warehouse. French chocolates, Italian wines, pretty embroidered house slippers that everyone ignores until November when it suddenly becomes obvious how poorly the heating system is suited for keeping the warehouse livable. Daphne takes to lounging about in cashmere wraps, perfectly made up face peeking over the edge of colorful knits. 

Debbie is the first to really take to her. She takes the younger woman shopping, covering her face with big sunglasses, and shows her how to hustle. They take taxis all over the city and Debbie shows her some easy tricks. Stealing perfume and lipstick isn’t that hard, and Daphne could buy out every cosmetics counter at macy’s and Nordstrom and Bloomingdales without noticing a dip in her accounts, but she clearly has fun anyways. She comes back to the warehouse and hands out her stolen goods as gifts. She sits on the ratty couch and digs out goodies, orange blossom and ginger perfume for Constance, a smudgy eyeliner for Nine Ball, she even sets aside a floral compact mirror for Tammy. 

Lou is next. She goes straight for the obvious and takes Daphne out on her bike. The brunette pulls the beat up leather jacket Lou hands her right over her designer outfit and smiles as if she has been given the sun. When Lou comes back, they are both windblown and happy, and she tells everyone that Daphne held on so tight she thought her ribs would break. 

Daphne falls into bed with debbie and Lou at the same time and no one is surprised. The woman seems so desperate for their love and attention and approval. They come in one lazy Sunday and find Daphne making coffee, wearing one of Lou’s button down shirts and with Debbie’s favorite shade of lipstick smeared along her jawbone. She smiles wider than she ever did in any advertisement. After that it’s like a switch that can’t be turned off. She hangs over anyone. She toys with Rose’s curls and slides her feet into Constance’s lap when they share the couch. When she feels she’s being ignored she pouts until someone gives her a kiss. They never talk about it, but she seems happy, she doesn’t even complain when Rose does eventually make a dress for that up and comer with the charity. She just leaves a hickey and trace of her perfume on the designer’s neck before she leaves for the final fitting.


End file.
